Information and communication technology solutions for outdoor navigation in dementia

INTRODUCTION: Information and communication technology (ICT) is potentially mature enough to empower outdoor and social activities in dementia. However, actual ICT-based devices have limited functionality and impact, mainly limited to safety. What is an ideal operational framework to enhance this field to support outdoor and social activities? METHODS: Review of literature and cross-disciplinary expert discussion. RESULTS: A situation-aware ICT requires a flexible fine-tuning by stakeholders of system usability and complexity of function, and of user safety and autonomy. It should operate by artificial intelligence/machine learning and should reflect harmonized stakeholder values, social context, and user residual cognitive functions. ICT services should be proposed at the prodromal stage of dementia and should be carefully validated within the life space of users in terms of quality of life, social activities, and costs. DISCUSSION: The operational framework has the potential to produce ICT and services with high clinical impact but requires substantial investment

Anticipatory Mobile Computing: A Survey of the State of the Art and Research Challenges

Today's mobile phones are far from mere communication devices they were ten years ago. Equipped with sophisticated sensors and advanced computing hardware, phones can be used to infer users' location, activity, social setting and more. As devices become increasingly intelligent, their capabilities evolve beyond inferring context to predicting it, and then reasoning and acting upon the predicted context. This article provides an overview of the current state of the art in mobile sensing and context prediction paving the way for full-fledged anticipatory mobile computing. We present a survey of phenomena that mobile phones can infer and predict, and offer a description of machine learning techniques used for such predictions. We then discuss proactive decision making and decision delivery via the user-device feedback loop. Finally, we discuss the challenges and opportunities of anticipatory mobile computing.Comment: 29 pages, 5 figure

Non-invasive estimation of stress in conflict resolution environments

The current trend in Online Dispute Resolution focuses mostly on the development of technological tools that allow parties to solve conflicts through telecommunication means. However, this tendency leaves aside key issues, namely our concern with respect to context information that was previously available in traditional Alternative Dispute Resolution processes. The main weakness of this approach is that conflict resolution may become a cold process, focused solely on objective questions. In order to overcome this inconvenience, we move forward to incorporate context information in an Online Dispute Resolution platform. In particular, we consider the estimation of the level of stress of the users by analyzing their interaction patterns. As a result, the conflict resolution platform or the mediator may weight to what extent a party is affected by a particular matter, allowing one to adapt the conflict resolution strategy to a specific problem in real time

Video-based assistance system for training in minimally invasive surgery

In this paper, the development of an assisting system for laparoscopic surgical training is presented. With this system, we expect to facilitate the training process at the first stages of training in laparoscopic surgery and to contribute to an objective evaluation of surgical skills. To achieve this, we propose the insertion of multimedia contents and outlines of work adapted to the level of experience of trainees and the detection of the movements of the laparoscopic instrument into the monitored image. A module to track the instrument is implemented focusing on the tip of the laparoscopic tool. This tracking method does not need the presence of artificial marks or special colours to distinguish the instruments. Similarly, the system has another method based on visual tracking to localize support multimedia content in a stable position of the field of vision. Therefore, this position of the support content is adapted to the movements of the camera or the working area. Experimental results are presented to show the feasibility of the proposed system for assisting in laparoscopic surgical training

Uncertainty propagation and speculation in projective forecasts of environmental change: a lake-eutrophication example

The issue of whether models developed for current conditions can yield correct predictions when used under changed control, as is often the case in environmental management, is discussed. Two models of different complexity are compared on the basis of performance criteria, but it appears that good performance at the calibration stage does not guarantee correctly predicted behavior. A requirement for the detection of such a failure of the model is that the prediction uncertainty range is known. Two techniques to calculate uncertainty propagation are presented and compared: a stochastic first-order error propagation based on the extended Kalman filter (EKF), and a newly developed and robust Monte Carlo set-membership procedure (MCSM). The procedures are applied to a case study of water quality, generating a projective forecast of the algal dynamics in a lake (Lake Veluwe) in response to management actions that force the system into a different mode of behavior. It is found that the forecast from the more complex model falls within the prediction uncertainty range, but its informative value is low due to large uncertainty bounds. As a substitute for time-consuming revisions of the model, educated speculation about parameter shifts is offered as an alternative approach to account for expected but unmodelled changes in the system